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By Request

By Betty Shimabukuro

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
The recipe for the Apple Cobbler served at Kamehameha
Schools makes a generous amount of streusel topping.
The cobbler is traditionally served with a dollop
of hard sauce.

---

Sauce is key to
fruit cobbler

The recipe requests I usually find hopeless are the ones for dishes served in school cafeterias a generation or more ago.

Cafeteria managers retire and leave, menus change. It's funny, though, how nostalgic people can be for those old foods, especially the desserts. And, you know, once in awhile ya just get lucky.

Debbie Sakamoto asked for the recipe for the Apple Cobbler served when she attended the Kamehameha Schools in the 1960s and '70s. "The cobblers were always good, but it was the hard sauce that made it," Sakamoto says. She's tried to duplicate the sauce, but hasn't been able to get it right -- yet.

Cobblers are still served at Kamehameha Schools, where dining room manager Debbie Tokuhara says the dessert is a traditional favorite of alumni, more so than today's students.

She agrees with Sakamoto that the key to the dish is the hard sauce, although it is just butter and powdered sugar.

At the school, the cobbler is made in large, shallow sheet pans, in huge quantities. For home use, here is a recipe cut down for use in a 9-by-9-inch baking pan.

Also included here is another Kamehameha favorite, Butterscotch Brownies, also known by their non-politically correct name, Haole Brownies.

FRUIT COBBLER

Crust:
1/2 pound butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Streusel:
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/2 pound butter
2-1/2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal

Filling:
30 ounces fruit pie filling (apple, peach, cherry, etc.)

Hard sauce:
1/2 pound butter
1/2 pound powdered sugar

To make crust: Cream butter and sugar, then add salt, baking soda and vanilla. Mix in flour and beat until soft. Spread evenly in a slightly greased 9-by-9-inch cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees 35-40 or until golden brown. Push edges down if they have crept up on the pan. Cool.

To make streusel: Combine ingredients and mix until crumbly. Rub mixture between hands if pieces won't break up.

Spread pie filling over cooled crust, then top with streusel. You will have more than enough streusel, so use as desired. Use a thin layer for a more fruity, less sweet cobbler. Fill to the top of the pan for a crunchier cobbler. Bake at 350 degrees 60 minutes, until streusel is golden brown.

To make hard sauce: Cream butter and sugar, then whip until soft. Serve on top of cobbler pieces or to the side.

BUTTERSCOTCH BROWNIES

1-1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 sticks butter or margarine (5 ounces)
1/2 cup eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cups diced walnuts

Cream sugars, salt and butter together. Continue mixing while adding eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder. Mix on low for 30 seconds (use a Kitchen Aid-style mixer or a wooden spoon; a hand mixer may not be powerful enough for the dough). Scrape sides of bowl and fold in nuts.

Mix another 2 minutes by mixer or 4 minutes by hand.

Spread in two greased 13-by-9-inch baking pans. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Brownies will rise gradually for about 25 minutes then flatten. Bake for 10 minutes after they have flattened completely.

Cool on wire rack, but cut while still slightly warm.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
By Request, Honolulu Star-Bulletin Food Section,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.